Staios says he's confident his coaching group can take this team to another level.
Hockey analytics is an excellent tool, one of several, that helps decision-makers fully evaluate players' strengths and weaknesses beyond what they notice during games. But it can also help teams make good decisions when selecting a head coach.
Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios says he used analytics as part of his hiring process before he signed Travis Green in the spring.
Naturally, he made use of the tried and true as well.
“It was an intense process,” Staios told the Coming in Hot Podcast on Thursday. “We worked very hard on identifying the right coach for this group at this time. So all the gentlemen that I interviewed can all coach. I was looking for some specifics. I think with Travis, one of the differentiators was, and they all have passion for coaching, was his ability to hold players accountable, and his ability to communicate with them.”
Some Senator fans have noted on social media that Green’s NHL coaching record, mostly while working in Vancouver, wasn’t stellar. Green has a career record of 141-159-35, good for a below-average points percentage of .473.
That’s where Director of Analytics Sean Tierney entered the equation. Tierney was brought on 11 months ago as the first full-time analytics hire in club history.
Staios quickly pointed out that the Senators aren’t data-driven; they're data-informed. But he did suggest, without getting into too much detail, that Tierney helped shed more light on Green’s past performance as a coach, analyzing information that might otherwise be misleading, overlooked, or undervalued.
“You can get stuck on win-loss record or experience, but then you start to really peel the layers off, and you look at the rosters of those teams at that time with that coach,” Staios said. “Certainly, there are elements that we used on the data to try and identify what the right fit was with our group.”
Former Senators head coach D.J. Smith was often accused of allowing players to repeatedly make mistakes without apparent consequence. Staios didn’t discuss whether this was true or not, but did say it won’t be an issue with Green.
“He's got no problem holding these players accountable,” Staios said. “The ability to do that today is, I think, important – to be able to communicate convey your message and hold them accountable. There's certainly a lot of differentiators that Travis brought through the interview process.”
Staios also spoke glowingly of his overall coaching depth this season, with Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Yeo, Nolan Baumgartner, and Ben Sexton, anchored by last year's fill-in head coach Jacques Martin as a consultant.
“I'm confident that this group can take this team to another level,” Staios said.